The present invention relates to the art of accessories for watercraft and, more particularly, to an improved nautical or running light for watercraft.
A wide variety of nautical or running light designs and structures have been provided heretofore for watercraft. While available lights for this purpose serve their intended function with regard to providing a light signal, there are a number of disadvantages and problems attendant to the manufacture and use thereof which affect cost, versatility, size and weight, durability and/or maintenance thereof. With regard to cost of manufacture, for example, the designs and structural configurations of previous running lights require complex and expensive dies for producing the component parts and, often, the structural complexity renders maintenance operations such as the replacement of a lamp bulb more time consuming and tedious than is desirable. With regard to versatility, varying the light signal angle or combinations of signal angles available to the consumer requires structurally different housing and lens components which, from the standpoint of cost of tooling therefor and inventory requirements, is uneconomical and impractical. Accordingly, selectivity with regard to a desired light signal angle, or combination of light signal angles, is undesirably limited.
From the standpoint of size, wieght and durability of nautical lights heretofore available, the lamp bulbs are generally enclosed in a sealed light chamber to minimize vapor corrosion of the lamp base and socket and, in an effort to minimize the size of the light unit, the lamp bulb is generally disposed very close to the lens component and the sealing component, and the latter is generally directly exposed to heat from the bulb. The light chamber structures do not provide for adequate disposition of heat from the lamp bulb, and such close proximity between the lamp bulb and lens often necessitates the use of glass for the lens component to avoid the deformation of a plastic lens which would result from heat build up. The use of a plastic lens generally results in a dimensionally larger light to achieve spacing to avoid heat distortion or degradation of the plastic. A glass lens is of course heavier than plastic, thus requiring a larger and/or heavier supporting component or housing therefore, whereby both size and weight are affected. Additionally, the close proximity between the lamp bulb and sealing component and/or direct exposure thereof to the heat of the lamp bulb, tends to structurally degrade the sealing component. This of course reduces the effective sealing of the light chamber, especially following removal of the lens for maintenance purposes such as changing a lamp bulb. From the standpoint of maintenance, the foregoing problem regarding heat build up, and the potential lens distortion and seal deterioration resulting therefrom, necessitates more frequent replacements of the seaing component and/or lens than is desirable. Further, vapor leakage necessitates the frequent cleaning of the lamp base and socket due to corrosion thereof.